best cheap/free scores 1.1

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Had a walk-in drop off a box of laptops, some UPS's with dead batteries, and a dell poweredge sc1425 with a pair of 3.8GHz Irwindales.

Good laptops? How beefy of UPSs? Just curious

Other than being limited to 7/server 2008 (or 8.0 if you're a nutcase), the poweredge sounds nice. Gotta love late model Netburst gear. Retired all of mine due to the OS issue (and coincidental reliability issues)... but put an OK GPU in it (I used a Geforce 9800 PNY PE) and it will web surf and productivity task as well as anything modern. I was running 1080P Youtube on mine w/o issues if memory serves...

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Good laptops? How beefy of UPSs? Just curious

2x Cyberpower 685AVR's (685VA) and a Belkin F6C550AVR (550VA).

Laptops were 2x DV6000 Turions that need the usual reflow (not worth my time for as unreliable as they'll be) and a Compaq CQ60 single core celeron @ 2.2GHz. Yea, they're parts. The upside, the bricks were included, which are usable on modern stuff. One of them had a good 240gb SSD in it.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I've always been a person that takes care of his stuff.....mainly because I always had to buy my stuff (toys) even as a kid.... A controller-throwing tantrum over a game is a pretty dumbfuck thing for a kid to do, let alone an adult!! Even if I paid for it, my mother would have beat my ass over something like that.

I'll scavenge the boards and the backlight LED strips out of it and pitch the rest.

I never said I threw a controller *at* a TV... but I could understand why somebody would out of pure rage. Not good... but not as uncommon as you'd think. Nintendo Wii's original Wiimote wrist straps were known to not be up to snuff and overaggressive players playing Wii Bowling/Tennis were known to break the straps and launch the remotes into the TV... Nintendo had to make beefier straps to correct the issue. I don't think they paid to replace any broken TVs or controllers though...

Edit: Found a compilation of this on youtube... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_uXEWKdsTY

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

...and a Compaq CQ60 single core celeron @ 2.2GHz.

I guess it's the Intel iGP variant? Some of these shipped with nVidia 9200M GS chips if my memory serves me right.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored a HP DV6-3100sl. Came with a bad GPU and NB, reflowed them and cleaned the crappy paste. No wonder these failed, the paste was that crappy white sour cream goo. Thankfully I had MX4 on hand so that did the job.

Has a Phenom II N830 2.1GHz, a 512MB HD5470 and 4GB (2x2GB) of Samsung DDR3-1333. Came with no HDD and a pretty much dead Hitachi GT-30N DVD-RW that I replaced with a Lite-On DS-8A5SH.

Also had to fix a nasty crack in the bottom case at the left hinge. Got my fingers pretty sticky as I used lots of super glue (the gel type) until I got it right, and surprisingly it holds up great now, although I'm still pretty cautious with that side, given how bad the crack was and how much plastic bits fell out of it.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I guess it's the Intel iGP variant? Some of these shipped with nVidia 9200M GS chips if my memory serves me right.

That's what a quick google of the cq60 said....I haven't disassembled the machine beyond removing RAM and the SSD that was in it. The case is trash and it wouldn't come on.....didn't waste any more time on it.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

that was a nice idea regarding the lexan polycarbonate sheets. so thats what they use as those social distancing transparent barriers... so it should be easily obtainable these days. hahaha!

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Well, if one thing I can say about the DV6 I recently fixed... it's weird.

Installed Windows 7 and off the bat I could not install GPU drivers - if I installed HD4200, I couldn't install the 5470, and viceversa.

Tried Windows 10 20H1, both started working correctly (although with older drivers since I didn't want to push my luck) with no issues.

So far so good, both work fine (HD5470 is used as primary display output card, HD4200 is secondary I think?) and no crashes or strange juju stuff so far, and temperature barely goes past 65*C, with 72 being the maximum it gets to when playing 60fps HD videos.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored an ASUS X52JC w/ Geforce 310M 1GB + i5 430M. Should be fun setting up Debian as a test - my dad's ASUS U36JC runs the same type of chips - 310M but soldered i5 480M. He complains that Debian locks up after rebooting from installing the 310M drivers, so I thought why not hunt a 310M + i5 machine to test that out?

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Had a walk-in today drop off a 46" Sony Bravia, colorful vertical lines (tcon or tab bond issue, I haven't had a chance to really check it). A JVC 1080 video camera (works). Inspiron 530 PC (works). Technic 90's era home stereo (works). a bunch of random DVD players (haven't tested).

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Had yet another walk-in drop some interesting things.

1) Crosley CR247 Vintage Reproduction radio/CD/cassette/phono. All the belts are shot (CD struggles to eject, cassette takeup reel belt broke, and playing record sounds like Bob Dylan due to the slowing & speeding back up of the loose/worn belt), easy fix. In the process of tracking down the belts, I was surprised what these radios go for!

2) Texas Instruments TI-Nspire graphing calculator with all the manuals, both keyboards, and USB - Works and mint condition.

3) Several Sun 'sunray' dumb terminals (untested).

4) Several Dell P4-era laptops (usual dead batteries)

5) A big box full of new old stock Radio Shack cables, connectors, and banana clip meter leads.

6) Another box full of random computer whatnots.

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Crosley CR247 Vintage Reproduction radio/CD/cassette/phono. All the belts are shot (CD struggles to eject, cassette takeup reel belt broke, and playing record sounds like Bob Dylan due to the slowing & speeding back up of the loose/worn belt), easy fix. In the process of tracking down the belts, I was surprised what these radios go for!

Especially since they are cheaply made pieces of junk (especially the turntable, and the ceramic cartridge sounds horrible), but people will pay a surprising amount for a "retro" looking cabinet filled with the cheapest Chinese parts they could find.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Especially since they are cheaply made pieces of junk (especially the turntable, and the ceramic cartridge sounds horrible), but people will pay a surprising amount for a "retro" looking cabinet filled with the cheapest Chinese parts they could find.

Yep, it is horribly built......

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

then refurbish it with the best american parts u can find and make it last for decades. american quality 4tw! thats how u do it!

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

then refurbish it with the best american parts u can find and make it last for decades. american quality 4tw! thats how u do it!

That's usually what it takes....American craftsman to unfuck the chinese garbage. I mean seriously, the pinch roller in the cassette deck is dryrotted....it's ~10yrs old. I've got 70's era cassette players (American and Japanese) that are still on their original rubber parts, and they're still good.

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Just pull a Shango066 and EOL it with a MOT on the aux in jacks. Works better that way.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

4) Several Dell P4-era laptops (usual dead batteries)

There's always a good one in the bunch....an Inspiron 8100 P3 1GHz mobile (CPU-Z reports it as a Tualatin). Case is mint, battery is good, has PCMCIA WiFi adapter, and charger. Of course all the true legacy devices; floppy, 2x serial ports, parallel... Stuck a 16gb mSATA in an IDE adapter, installed W2K and here we are. Great way to waste a Christmas day. This classic is ~20yrs old....and to be in this condition, it qualifies as a 'vintage'... ...and so classy with the wood grain palm rests.

Of course this post created from it from FF12.

Added a couple useless pics...

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

That must've been a business exec's laptop back when it was new.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

oh wow nice! i'd luv to have one as a retro mobile gaming rig on the go. not sure if the onboard gpu is up to scratch but cant complain back then for mobile applications.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

oh wow nice! i'd luv to have one as a retro mobile gaming rig on the go. not sure if the onboard gpu is up to scratch but cant complain back then for mobile applications.

It's a GeForce2 w/32mb dedicated memory. GPU is a card of its own. This system's kryptonite is its chipset....its an i815, which doesn't support anything more than 512mb RAM. I haven't tried any games on it as of yet.

If nothing else, it's a functional & neat display piece in my office. I've never seen one with that woodgrain palmrest before....and its original.